Lewis Cope

Cope was born on 19 March 1995 in Hartlepool, County Durham, and has 13 siblings.^[1][2][3] He attended both English Martyrs School and Sixth Form College and Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.^[2]

In 2008, aged 13, Cope was cast in the role of Michael in a West End theatre production of Billy Elliot the Musical.^[4] In 2010, he appeared in the BBC sketch show The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson.^[5] He subsequently joined the hip-hop dance troupe Ruff Diamond, who finished as runner-up on the Sky One dance competition Got to Dance in 2013.^[6] Cope went on to appear in the short films A Six and Two Threes and Waterbabies, as well as television series including Hetty Feather (2019), Doctors (2019) and Vera (2021).^[7] His stage credits include Richard III (2017), Punk Rock (2017), Macbeth (2017), The Night Watch (2018), Spilt (2018), Candide (2018), F$%k Magical Michael (2019), Witness for the Prosecution (2019) and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (2022).^[8]

In 2022, Cope joined the cast of the ITV soap opera Emmerdale as Nicky Miligan.^[9] He was initially introduced as a male nanny who attends an interview for a job caring for Gabby Thomas (Rosie Bentham) and Dawn Fletcher's (Olivia Bromley) children at Home Farm, before being established as the son of Caleb Miligan (William Ash), and the grandson of Frank Tate (Norman Bowler) and Faith Dingle (Sally Dexter).^[10] He departed the soap in July 2024, with the character leaving alongside boyfriend Suni Sharma (Brahmdeo Shannon Ramana).^[11][12]

In 2023, Cope appeared in an episode of the mystery crime series Mrs Sidhu Investigates.^[13] In August 2025, Cope was announced as a contestant on the twenty-third series of Strictly Come Dancing, as a replacement for Kristian Nairn, who withdrew from the competition due to health issues.^[7][14] He was partnered with Katya Jones.^[15] They scored the series' first perfect score of 40, with a couple's choice dance in the Halloween special, with judge Anton du Beke describing the dance "as good as any we've ever seen on any series".^[16] Cope and Jones became the ninth couple to be eliminated in week 11 after losing the dance-off to Amber Davies and Nikita Kuzmin.^[17]